Trade unions have called for an urgent meeting with Mike Ashley over
allegations that part-time staff at his sports retail chain Sports Direct do
not get paid for lunch breaks, regularly work unpaid after closing time to
tidy up a store, and face mandatory searches.

Unite has written to Mr Ashley, who also owns Newcastle United, because it is “seriously concerned that a culture of low pay and poor treatment has embedded itself in at Sport Direct” and is compiling a dossier on the “mistreatment” of staff.

The union, which represents staff at the company’s warehouse in the Midlands, made the comments after it emerged that the 20,000 part-time workers at Sports Direct are employed on zero-hours contracts.

The zero-hours contracts account for 90pc of the 23,000 workforce and mean that staff at Sports Direct cannot be sure of how many hours they will work each week.

The zero-hours contracts are in use despite the company introducing a generous bonus scheme for full-time staff. Full-time workers at Sports Direct are set to collect a bonus worth more than £70,000 in company shares next month.

The employee review website Glassdoor, which ranks companies on the basis of reviews by employees, has a rating of just 1.8 out of 5 for Sports Direct, one of the lowest in the retail sector.

Comments on the website claim flexible working hours are one of the benefits of being employed by Sports Direct, but the negatives include working overtime for no extra pay, “rude” behaviour from managers, and little training.

John Hannett, the general secretary of shop workers union Usdaw, said: “Zero hours contracts leave employees vulnerable, insecure and at the mercy of unscrupulous employers. All contracts should guarantee a minimum number of hours.

"The UK labour market is one of the most deregulated in the industrial world and the re-emergence of zero hours contracts, many years after reputable employers had done away with them, is a depressing sign of the extent of exploitation faced by many employees.”

Unite claimed staff at Sports Direct’s warehouse have to wait up to 45 minutes to be searched at the end of their shift.